In four months, triathlon will be back in Hong Kong as it makes it much-anticipated debut on the World Cup circuit. The latest Asia Cup on the island thus gave the perfect opportunity to fine-tune the running of the event.
As will be the case in March 2024, the race at the Asia Cup was held over the Sprint distance. While that brought about a close finish in the men’s race, the women’s event was rather different.
Women’s race
Wing To Cho of Hong Kong led the way in the water, clocking 10:05 for the 750m. Next out was Zoe Clarke, the winner of the recent Asia Cup in Kota Kinabalu, while Bailee Brown was only a further second behind.
With six laps to tackle on the bike, a furious pace was set early on. Bailee Brown and Manami Iijima headed up the field early on as a front pack of twelve gradually came together.
Amber Schlebusch, the winner of the Americas Cup in Sarasota back in April, made it into the lead group after losing over 15 seconds to Cho in water, as did Gyeongmin Park and Charlotte Hall.
With only seven athletes left beyond the front group, there was little chance of it being added to. Clarke would DNF on the bike, cutting the size of the pack. After her win in Malaysia, it also robbed the race of a prospective winner.
Once the leaders made it through T2, though, it soon became clear who would win the event.
Schlebusch ran away to victory by a commanding 62 seconds. She clocked 16:59 for the 5km to take the win in style. Iijima came home in 2nd place having produced a 17:55 split. The athlete from Guam was the only other woman under 18 minutes which served as a testament to Schlebusch’s speed.
Brown then secured 3rd place to take a second consecutive bronze medal after managing the same at the Asian Sprint Championships in Saudi Arabia.
Men’s race
Felix Duchampt arrived in Hong Kong having raced on the other side of the world in Chile only a week prior. The Romanian athlete was on the hunt for further points towards his world ranking in an attempt to consolidate his hold on the European Olympic New Flag slot.
However, Duchampt lost out in the swim as Kyotaro Yoshikawa charged into the lead. The Japanese athlete managed a time of 8:12 and created a slight gap out of the water.
Chris Deegan and Lachlan Jones came out next, a few seconds behind, and an initial front pack soon came together on the bike. James Edgar and Jason Tai Long Ng made their way into the front pack in relative comfort. The group soon became ten-strong as Ryosuke Maeda rode up to the front.
Further back, though, Duchampt was stranded in the chase pack. He had Kurt Wesley, the men’s winner in Kota Kinabalu, for company. However, the pair could not stem the loss of seconds and fell further 40 seconds behind.
Pavlos Antoniades also tried to lift the tempo in the in chase pack but to no avail.
On the run, Edgar and Ng paced the opening stages before peeling away from the rest of the leaders. Only Jones managed to retain any real contact with the pair while the rest of the pack lost time.
At the same time, Duchampt and Antoniades were closing fast. Late in the run, Antoniades broke away from Duchampt and set his sights on the few men ahead. He picked off Yoshikawa, leaving only three men up the road. However, they would remain out of reach.
At the front, Ng and Edgar had remained locked in step for the 5km. That was until the Irish athlete kicked away to take the win.
Ng crossed 6 seconds later to take 2nd. In doing so, he earned a boost towards his hopes of earning the Asian New Flag place. Jones then crossed to take the bronze medal, holding off Antoniades, who was the only man to run under 15 minutes (14:56) for the 5km, in 4th.
You can view the full results here.
